Bengaluru: Duo brought empathy to architecture

Sometime in the summer of 1992, a motley group of architects organised a workshop in Bengaluru. A house was to be designed on a linear site with roads on the two ends almost a floor apart in section. I remember distinctly the sensation of becoming aware of the power of the split-level and the value of carefully responding to location.

This was also the first time I got the chance to engage closely with the Base Group — Nikhil Arni, Sharad Padalkar, Edgar Demello, Sanjay Mohe, Prem Chandavarkar and, of course, the Kanade brothers, Shankar and Navnath.

As participants, the real learning was the importance of taking positions and, though the notion of ‘Indianness’ preoccupied the national discourse then, the tutors focused on what Chandavarkar called the ‘palpability of place’.

At the workshop, the Kanade brothers provided us with both metaphorical and practical lessons that have served this architect well for over 30 years.

Navnath invoked metaphors, using precedent and comparison to help us understand scale, proportion and phenomenological impact, while Shankar Sir simply sat down with us to draw. I have rarely had a teacher like this — someone who got into the trenches with us and showed us methods, strategies and principles of engagement. Being with him, we saw his single-minded pursuit of joy — the masterful management of challenges into the making of places for well-being.

Shilpa Sindoor, their practice, produced over 500 homes, ranging from large villas to many small residences for people with limited means. On a visit to Keremane, their celebrated apartment building in ISRO Layout, a few years ago, I remember Shankar Sir’s recapitulation of the cost break-up of construction and how he reduced it. His homes reveal the empathy he had for clients, working closely with them to stay within budget while offering the bonus of a constantly inspiring place to live. Mohe told us that when Shankar Sir was at
Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai, he lived in a small room with a large hole in the roof and, when asked about the rains, would say it was wonderful to have the stars overhead. Every challenge was an opportunity.

Their projects reveal their making in literal but idiosyncratic ways. The trace of the hand is immediately perceivable, manifested in intimate scale, glorious imperfections and whimsical compositions. Often, an articulated exterior conceals a rich, mysteriously lit and cavernous interior, even in the smallest homes.

This preoccupation with phenomenology extended to their larger projects too. In the Jal Vayu Vihar housing project in Kalyan Nagar, considered by many to be their most representative work, one can see the ingenious way housing units are assembled to create spatial conditions of incredible variety. Their fascination with the vernacular finds expression here, via B V Doshi, Paolo Soleri and Herman Hertzberger — evoking open-endedness, invention and participatory space.

With the passing of Shankar Sir on December 6, one year after his brother Navnath, we have lost two of our most incandescent teachers. At the heart of their work are values that have disappeared from architecture today — frugality, playfulness, and the deeply political idea that all of us deserve a joyful place to live, irrespective of our station in life.